Memoirs & Diaries - The Diary of Thomas Fredrick Littler: Introduction
This section of the site comprises the wartime diaries of Thomas Fredrick Littler.
The introduction below was penned by Fred's descendent, Chris Littler.
Introduction by Chris Littler
Fred Littler joined the Cheshire Regiment shortly after his 17th birthday in 1914. He trained in Aberystwyth, Cambridge, Northampton and Norwich, before beginning work at Siddley Deasy in Coventry.
He signed for Foreign Service on his 18th birthday, and, after further training, left England for Rouen in March 1916. His diary describes his experience of battle in Northern France for 11 months from April 1916, where he sustained a leg injury, which eventually led to his return to England to convalesce.
In England he met his future wife and joined the Royal Engineers with whom he returned to France in April 1918 until the end of the war. He reports many casualties around him on the front line and in support positions, and himself survived Spanish Flu, a major killer, towards the end of the war.
Littler himself prefaced his diary entries with the following text:
Diary of all I did, and places where I was in action, during the Great European War of the years 1914-15-16-17-18 and 1919.
The diaries can be accessed using the sidebar to the right. These are divided into several parts by year.
Diary and photographs contributed by Chris Littler, visit his website at www.first-world-war.co.uk.
The German word "U-Boat" was derived from "Unterseeboot" (undersea boat).
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